Holding On Tight
by miXiZ
Summary: Just how did Castiel get Dean out of Hell?


**AN: A one shot that just popped in my head today. A big thank you to NerdAngel for her support and friendship as well as to all my readers and reviewers, LilyBolt, Biensche, emebalia and ChicoThorn... and mjf2468. Happy Christmas to y'all!**

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Castiel stared at the portal that was going to take the angel to a place he had never yet been. He was here on a commandment from God himself. Castiel was to rescue a human soul from Hell. Not just from any place in Hell, no, from the high security part of it. The angel wondered what in God's eyes made this human so special that he sent Castiel to risk his own life to pull his soul from the pit.

Of course, it didn't end there. Not only was Castiel to retrieve Dean Winchester's soul, no, he was also ordered to restore his body and join those two parts of the human. Retrieving a soul from deep within Hell was a tough but not impossible task for an angel of Castiel's status. However, reviving a body that had been buried for four months was going to use up almost all of the angel's grace.

Castiel had decided he needed a plan that included a rest period for himself. He entered the portal and ventured to the depths of the pit. He had to use a lot of his energy on concealing his form from any being in Hell. This Dean Winchester had an enormous amount of security guard demons tightly situated around his torture chamber.

Not for the first time Castiel wondered what this Dean Winchester had done to end up in Hell's most wanted section. People didn't just end up there for no reason. Not even some stone cold murderers had made it to this high of a security level in the pit. And yet God himself deemed this soul worthy of saving.

Castiel had to dig deep into his memory and only came up with one case where God had ordered the resurrection of a soul. And that had been the one of his human son. As far as Castiel knew, God had never again repeated this sort of experiment.

Finally Castiel had found a safe place to hide until he could get to Dean Winchester's soul undetected. Waiting for the right moment to act, the angel had more opportunity to contemplate his mission. He knew Dean Winchester had been in Hell for four months, or rather, forty years Hell time. Usually, human souls were tortured until they begged for mercy. Most of the time it took barely more than one Hell year for them to reach that point.

Dean Winchester had lasted way longer than any human he had heard of. And when he reached his breaking point, the King of Hell had decided to not simply twist his soul into a demon, no, he had made this man torture other souls. The perfect method to torture a soul even further without inflicting direct harm. At least when it was the soul of a righteous man.

Jerking from his thoughts, Castiel realized he had almost missed an excellent opportunity for his rescue mission. Change of guards. The angel took a big risk in minimizing his powers to get past the guards to Dean. But the more powerful he was, the greater was the chance of detection. Castiel hovered above the soul he was to save for a moment before juicing up his powers.

This charge of energy was so powerful, it acted like a magnet towards the Winchester's soul, which, much to Castiel's surprise, was astonishingly untainted by his years in Hell. Maybe that was the reason for his mission.

As expected, once Castiel was back to full power, his cover was blown. Demons poured towards him from all corners of hell, trying to seize him and his objective. Quickly, Castiel cast an Enochian charm and dashed to the portal it opened, taking Dean Winchester with him.

The charm had not only allowed Castiel and Dean to escape, as planned, it had also dropped the two right where Castiel needed to fulfill the second part of his mission. Needing a moment to gather his strength, the angel noticed that the soul he'd just rescued was in a state of unawareness. He had expected this, but learning how extraordinary this soul seemed to be, he hadn't been sure it would be this way.

This upcoming part needed all Castiel's concentration and would zap almost all hundred percent of his grace. It was one thing to revive a recently deceased human, but entirely another to repair a body that had been decomposing for over 120 earth days. Thus it was just as well, that the rescued soul seemed to be in a suspended animation.

Castiel spread his wings, hovering above the simple, unmarked grave in the middle of a forest. He concentrated his powers on the body underneath the ground and felt his figure lighting up as he reached his right hand towards the ground.

His fingers touched grass and dirt and glided through the layers like a knife through butter. Finally his hand came into contact with the shoulder of Dean Winchester's body. Gathering his powers once more, Castiel let the energy flow. He felt how the structures of the human rebuilt and aligned, repairing his body into a state of being unharmed like the day he was born.

With his grace almost depleted, Castiel's powers were nearing their end, but the angel had one more task to perform, before he could retreat into Heaven to let his grace recover. Grasping the soul he had rescued from Hell, he transferred it into the human's body. With the last effort he sparked it into place and as Castiel's awareness started to cloud black he heard the human draw in a huge breath, sucking whatever oxygen there was in the coffin into his renewed lungs.

With a gigantic boom, Castiel's true form returned to Heaven, hovering in a limbo state where he was aware of what this human was doing, but the angel could do nothing to guide the man for at least several earth hours.

Castiel watched the human break through the ground as he fought his way out of his grave. When Dean Winchester had recovered from his exertion and taken in his surroundings, he started making his way in no specific direction. Soon, Castiel would have to make contact to communicate with him. But that would have to wait until the angel had recovered enough to take a vessel.

The wonder, confusion and also awe on the man's face let Castiel know there was really only one train of thoughts running through Dean Winchester's mind. Why, how, and most of all, who?

 _Soon, Dean Winchester. Soon you will learn what happened and why. Until then, have faith._


End file.
